George Oliver Smith's "Instinct" (short story, free)

This is more a juvenile story than for grown ups.

Story summary.

Six times during the human history, all powerful aliens bludgeoned human civilization to savage stage just as they were about to reach the critical stage for galactic adventure.

Now is the seventh time. Bull-headed humans have again reached the same stage through the same process. Worried aliens now want to understand what makes the humans tick.

To this end, Jerry Markham is kidnapped. He was piloting the first ship to Venus & got picked up on the way. While the aliens are "studying" him, magic happens...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, March 1959.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks, or Scribd.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.